Fermented squid side dish

Ojingeojeot 오징어젓

Today I’m pleased to introduce a kind of fermented seafood made with squid to you. Fermented seafood is called jeotgal (젓갈) in Korean. Korea is surrounded by ocean on 3 sides, so you’ll imagine that a variety of fresh fish and seafood dishes are available all year round. My Korean ancestors wanted to enjoy their fresh fish for a long time so they developed a way of preserving fresh fish by fermenting it with salt. Jeotgal is eaten by itself after being seasoned, or its used in kimchi making.

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I used to make salty fermented anchovies every year when I lived in Korea. It was very easy to make! I mixed fresh anchovies with a lot of salt and put them into a huge earthenware jar. About 6 months later, the achovy jeot fermented well! I used to use them in my kimchi paste, or I took some from the jar and mixed with seasonings to use as a side dish.

Now that I’m living in the States, such fresh anchovies are not available, but I found I can make ojingeojeot with frozen small squids.

Salty fermented squid called ojingeojeot is a side dish that you can keep it in your fridge for months and months, and enjoy it right until it runs out.

166 Comments:

Hi Maangchi,
Need help on recipe close to the fermented squid, my kids like fry fish but then its just plain,
something with spicy/nonspicy with vegetables with nice looking red color sauce to it would it possible i you could come up with this??? Hope to hear from you. Thank you very much.

Ever since I found your blog and youtube video I have been a massive fan and so hooked by your recipes!
I am a Japanese born Korean and have been living in London for over 20 years.
Although I had no chance to learn how to cook Korean food from my mother my memories and my tongue remember how good my mother’s cooking was and I am so proud of being a Korean having both culture Korean, Japanese and British.
And I love cooking myself too.

Anyway… I have a question about this squid dish.
Should these squid be very fresh ‘Sashimi’ level of quality?
It is said you could use frozen, which I imagined they are not needed to be ‘Sashimi’ quality as they will be fermented…
I will try and get as fresh as possible in London, however finding ‘sashimi’ quality may be a little difficult.

I have a question about the fermented squid.
I live in Singapore, a tropical country.
I followed the steps to do the fermented squid and would like to check with you is there a minimum time to ferment the squid. I left the squid in the freezer (as it colder of course). Can it be like 2 weeks? I’m so greedy and I can’t wait to eat it!
Looking forward to hear from you soon!